What is Earthaven?

“Ecovillages are human-scale, full-featured settlements in which human activities are harmlessly integrated into the natural world in a way that is supportive of healthy human development, and which can be successfully continued into the indefinite future.”

Founded in 1994, Earthaven is located on 329 acres in culturally rich, biologically diverse western North Carolina, about 40 minutes southeast of Asheville. We are dedicated to caring for people and the Earth by learning and demonstrating a holistic, sustainable culture.

We intend to become a village of at least 150 people on 56 homesites. In recent year’s Earthaven’s membership has been around 60 members, with about 50 living on the land. Our permaculture site plan includes residential neighborhoods and compact business sites, as well as areas suitable for orchards, market gardens, and wetlands.

Much of Earthaven is still under construction. Physical infrastructure so far includes roads, footpaths, bridges, campgrounds, ponds, constructed wetlands, off-grid power systems, gardens, our Council Hall, a kitchen-dining room, many small dwellings, and a growing number of free-standing and commonwall homes.

We govern ourselves with a consensus decision-making process and a Council and committee structure. We own title to our land, which we financed with private loans from members.

We value sustainable ecological systems, permaculture design, elegant simplicity, right livelihood, and healthy social relations. We are spiritually diverse. We have both vegetarians and omnivores; some members raise livestock.

Our small ecologically sound businesses include a permaculture plant nursery; carpentry and home construction; tool-rental; solar system installation; plumbing and electrical installation; candle-lanterns and other wooden craft items; and consultants and courses in permaculuture design, natural building, creating new ecovillages, herbal medicine, and women’s health. See Making a Living.

We teach workshops on starting an ecovillage, and designing an ecovillage. See our Calendar for details. For those seeking technical information we offer consultations.

Earthaven is a living seed in which we store the best of our cultural heritage, and an incubator in which we will embrace our responsibility as humans during the impending chaos.

We will pass our mythology, technology, and community skills on to our extraordinary descendants, who will plant a poly-culture of survival strategies and help cultivate a sustainable renaissance.

Through cultural exchange between tribes, they will create a world more abundant, beautiful, and peaceful than ours.

The success of our efforts today shall be measured in these terms.

—An inspirational statement written by a small group of members during our 2008 strategic planning process